Published in:
01-12-2014 | Editorial
Treating HSV and CMV reactivations in critically ill patients who are not immunocompromised: pro
Authors:
Jean-Marie Forel, Ignacio Martin-Loeches, Charles-Edouard Luyt
Published in:
Intensive Care Medicine
|
Issue 12/2014
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Excerpt
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) have received increasing attention as potential pathogens in critically ill patients. Both have the ability to develop viral latency, and critically ill patients, especially those with sepsis, can develop an immunosuppressed state that might reactivate the lysogenic part of the viral life cycle [
1]. The mechanisms of this immunosuppression which can contribute to viral reactivation include apoptotic depletion of CD4 and CD8 T cells, T cell exhaustion, increased T-regulatory cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells and impaired natural killer cell function [
2,
3]. However, no study has been conducted in order to analyse the impact of antiviral treatment in immunocompetent critically ill patients with HSV or CMV reactivation. …